Dame Helen Mirren hopes Sir Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma is given more credit for her role in the director's success after the release of new biopic Hitchcock.

The Oscar-winning actress plays Alma in the new film, with Sir Anthony Hopkins as the Psycho filmmaker.

Dame Helen, who attended last night's Los Angeles premiere with co-stars Jessica Biel and Scarlett Johansson, told Flicks And Bits: "Film buffs are well aware of the contributions Alma made to the creation of some of Hitchcock's movies, how incredibly important she was in the creation of his masterworks.

"And I wanted to present on the screen someone that the general public would believe had these abilities, and for the general public to recognise that, that she truly worked side-by-side with this incredible filmmaker.

"Hitchcock is such an iconic, incredibly famous auteur, filmmaker. And there was this woman working alongside him every step of the way, from script, through casting, not through the shooting process, but through the editing process - and as we all know, for Hitchcock the editing was everything.

The Queen star added: "The shooting he couldn't really care less about, because he had it all already edited in his head, it was just a question of getting the story told through the images.

"Alma was so important to those essential steps in the creation of a Hitchcock film. So I would love from this point on for history to recognise that."